Teacher union convention opens with fiery speech

Gov. Jerry Brown and the union’s own president headlined the American Federation of Teachers convention Friday, but it was a fiery speech from a North Carolina reverend that roused the crowd.

Rev. William Barber’s portrayal of teachers standing up for “moral” beliefs in a fight against Tea Party members, billionaires and their puppets, elicited applause from thousands of union delegates who gathered in the West Hall’s convention floor, before deciding the 1.5 million-member union’s agenda over the weekend-long convention.

“If they’ve got to fight us this hard, we’ve got to be some bad somebodies,” Barber said eliciting a standing ovation from the crowd.

Barber’s portrayal of teachers beset by greedy business interests was a common theme of the convention’s opening day, but his message of a “moral” agenda shared by allies, including minority groups and those fighting inequality back in his home state was what excited delegate Michael Vanlandingham and others.

“It was really empowering to hear and see other people who are going through the same thing we are,” said Vanlandingham, who was representing union employees of a Chicago-area community college whom, he said, have been coping with corruption and pressure from anti-union, business interests.

Tom Lander, a union delegate and history teacher from the Miami area, said Barber’s “speech was just so inspirational.”

“I really think we’ve been afraid to organize our people and stand up for our moral beliefs,” Lander said.

Lander and Vanlandingham are part of a 3,500-member delegation tasked with considering issues that range from teacher tenure rules to the role of standardized testing through programs such as the Common Core.

Union President Randi Weingarten called for the suspension of Common Core testing, before a floor debate on the program that is set for this weekend.

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“Some of you in this room think the standards should be jettisoned. Some support them because you’ve seen them help develop the deeper learning that is the antithesis of ‘drill-and-kill,’” Weingarten said. “Some of you — myself included — think they hold great promise but that they’ve been implemented terribly.”

The governor spoke out in support of the union’s stance on standardized testing, noting California’s resistance to federal policies on standardized testing.

“Teaching is not a recipe or a formula, it’s a relationship,” said Brown, adding teachers need to feel it, but can’t if every step is choreographed from 3,000 miles away.

The governor also brought up U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, noting that teachers — not Duncan or himself — are the ones who make the “difference” inside classrooms.

AFT delegates could call for Duncan’s ouster, as their counterparts in the National Education Association did last week. Weingarten said she’s not taking a stance on the matter, as she prefers the action originate from delegates rather than union leadership.

The convention will end Monday with a press conference on the Vergara case. The legal battle ended last month with a Los Angeles Superior Court judge calling teacher tenure laws unconstitutional, as they make it difficult to fire incompetent teachers and can deprive kids of a quality education.

Weingarten said the ruling pits teachers against students, without considering the valid purpose tenure laws and due process rights serve by protecting educators from being targeted for political or other unfair motives.

Teachers and unions across the country, Weingarten said, are facing attacks from “copy cat” cases.

“The copy cat cases are a political strategy to try to divide parents from teachers and community,” Weingarten said in an interview after the opening rally.